Influence of transnational economic alliances on the IFRS convergence decision in India - institutional perspectives

This study contributes to the literature on global governance by highlighting the importance of not losing sight of the nation state as an important player in the transnational governance arena. Specifically, literature on global (accounting) regulation devotes a great deal of attention to the roles of organisations and agencies with transnational remit (such as global standard setters, donor agencies) while often downplaying the significant impacts of the more traditional cross-country links forged through economic relationships and resource dependencies between national and transnational institutional fields. This was specially noted in the case of the indirect influences of the US’s decision to delay IFRS convergence. While being interpreted as an indirect source of influence, such a decision played a very significant role on the convergence negotiations in India. The study shows how the US influence was channelled through Japan with which India has significant trade and economic relations and, most importantly, holds a joint forum specifically to discuss convergence issues. The consequences of India’s links with countries such as US and Japan in the decision-making process provide a vivid indication of the important roles of cross-governmental relationships in the global governance arena, and also question the position of transnational organisations as pervasive powers in such governance. The study’s findings clearly demonstrate that the pursuit of full IFRS convergence strongly favoured by the transnational forces was invariably challenged in the Indian context by the influences of powerful nation states advocating a more cautious approach

A Cross-Sectional Study on the Prevalence of Depression and its Impact on the Quality of Life in Patients with OCD

Background: Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is a debilitating neuropsychiatric disorder affecting approximately 1–3% of the population, at some point in their lifetime, and is characterized by recurrent intrusive ideas, impulses, or images (obsessions) along with overt or covert behaviors (compulsions) aimed at reducing the distress of obsessions. Aim: To study the impact of depression on the quality of life in patients with OCD. Methods: It was a hospital based, observational and cross-sectional study conducted in the Outpatient Department of psychiatry, Mental Health Institute, SCB Medical College, Cuttack.  The study was a time limited, single-centre study carried out from September 2018 to August 2019. Considering previous similar studies, the number of patients attending our OPD and from the previous statistics, the total sample size was taken to be 100. The study comprised of 100 untreated OCD patients, who were chosen through purposive sampling. Results: It was found that both obsession and compulsion affect quality of life negatively, obsession significantly affects physical well-being, psychological well- being as well as social relationships whereas compulsions significantly affect psychological well-being and social relationships. When different domains of QoL were correlated with severity of depression and it was found that all domains had negative correlation with severity of depression which was statistically significant i.e., depression negatively affects physical and psychological well-being, social relationships, and environmental health. The highest level of impairment was seen in psychological well-being. On comparing quality of life of OCD patients with and without depression it was found that those with comorbid depression had significantly poor quality of life in all of the quality-of-life domains than OCD patients without comorbid depression suggesting that comorbid depression is a strong predictor of poor quality of life in OCD patients. Conclusion: OCD has a profound impact not only on the patients but also the caregivers. In order to truly understand the effect of OCD on the patient population, one must take into account not only the disabling symptoms but also examine the overall ability of the patients to enjoy their life. Keywords: Depression, QoL, OCD

Immunoprecipation Assay to Quantify the Amount of tRNAs associated with Their Interacting Proteins in Tissue and Cell Culture

Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) are highly abundant species and, along their biosynthetic and functional path, they establish interactions with a plethora of proteins. The high number of nucleobase modifications in tRNAs renders conventional RNA quantification approaches unsuitable to study protein-tRNA interactions and their associated functional roles in the cell. We present an immunoprecipitation-based approach to quantify tRNA bound to its interacting protein partner(s). The tRNA-protein complexes are immunoprecipitated from cells or tissues and tRNAs are identified by northern blot and quantified by tRNA-specific fluorescent labeling. The tRNA interacting protein is quantified by an automated western blot and the tRNA amount is presented per unit of the interacting protein. We tested the approach to quantify tRNA(Gly) associated with mutant glycyl-tRNA-synthetase implicated in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. This simple and versatile protocol can be easily adapted to any other tRNA binding proteins. Graphic abstract: [Image: see text

Study of serum lipid profile: An observation between criminality and psychosis in relation to aggression

Background & aim: Aggressive and violent behavior is being increasingly viewed as a public health problem and violence prevention has become one of the most pressing issues facing our society today. Our aim was to find correlation between lipid profile, criminal behavior and psychosis. Method: The present study involved 120 participants consisted of four groups. Each group consisted of 30 subjects. This study was done in two different places. One is at Circle jail Choudwar, Cuttack and second place is at in-patient Department of Psychiatry MHI, S.C.B medical college, Cuttack. First study group was male convicted prisoners selected at Circle Iail Choudwar having no psychiatric illness .The control group for this was selected from general population. The second study group was male psychotic patients having criminal record. The control group for this was selected from same ward, of male psychotic patient having no criminal record. The objective was to study the serum lipid profile of each group and it's relationship in criminality, psychosis and aggression. All the subjects in first study group and its controls were screened with General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12).All the subjects in second study group and its controls were assessed with Overt Aggression Scale (OAS) for scoring of aggression and Brief Psychiatry Rating Scale (BPRS). Results: The criminal group without psychiatric illness showed significantly lower cholesterol (p=0.010) than general population and also lower than the psychotic in-patients without history of crime. The psychotic in-patient group with criminal records showed significantly lower cholesterol (p=0.001) than psychotic patients of no criminal record and also lower than non-psychotic criminal offenders. The psychotic criminal offenders showed lowest mean cholesterol than all other three groups. Conclusion: Our study proves a causal connection between low cholesterol and behavioral problem arising out of criminality, psychotic aggression

An elusive diagnosis: <i>Scedosporium apiospermum</i> infection after near-drowning

A 51-year-old male was admitted in our institute following an episode of near-drowning. He later developed ventriculitis and cerebral ring-enhancing lesions. He died following a subarachnoid hemorrhage due to rupture of a mycotic aneurysm involving the right fetal posterior cerebral artery. Scedosporium apiospermum was isolated from the cerebrospinal fluid. Central nervous system invasion by S apiospermum may present insidiously in near-drowning patients and, therefore, requires a high index of suspicion. In cases with the characteristic cerebral ring-enhancing lesions and concomitant ventriculitis, treatment should be instituted while awaiting fungal culture. With this article we intend to alert neurologists, intensivists, and physicians to this near fatal infection, as early identification and prompt treatment with voriconazole may be life saving

Angle Closure Scoring System (ACSS)-A Scoring System for Stratification of Angle Closure Disease - Fig 3

<p>Comparison of 4 quadrant (from above to below superior, nasal, temporal and inferior in that order) gonioscopic features of eyes with primary angle closure glaucoma requiring 0 medicines (group 1-a,d, g and i) with that requiring 1 medicines (group 2-b, e, h and k) or >2 medicines (group 3-c, f, i, l)showing definite differences in gonioscopic features among eyes with different number of medicines, especially group 1 and group 3.</p

Comparing ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer thickness with focal and global responses on multifocal electroretinogram in glaucoma

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate responses on multifocal electroretinogram (mfERG) with ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer (GCIPL) thickness on cirrus spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) in glaucoma. METHODS: All diagnosed glaucoma patients attending glaucoma services at our institute from November 2012 to April 2013 were screened for this observational hospital-based study. Controls included patients attending our outpatient services for general eye checkup. Structural parameters on SD-OCT including GCIPL and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness were compared with functional parameters on mfERG in early (mean deviation −6 dB), moderate (−6 to − 12 dB), and controls. RESULTS: A total of 54 cases and 33 controls fulfilling inclusion criteria were recruited for the study. The average and minimum GCIPL thickness did not vary significantly between early and control eyes while moderate glaucoma eyes had marginally lower GCIPL thickness than early glaucoma eyes. The GCIPL minimum thickness on univariate regression was found to be influenced by N2 amplitudes (β = −0.5, P = 0.012) and global N2P1amplitudes (β =0.6, P = 0.01) in moderate glaucoma. In early glaucoma, these were influenced only by RNFL parameters with no association with functional mfERG responses. Multivariate logistic regression identified global N2P1 amplitude to be significantly influencing GCIPL average and minimum thickness (P = 0.01 and 0.02, R2 = 47.8% and 52.3%, respectively) in moderate glaucoma. Maximum area under the curve was found for GCIPL minimum (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.53–0.81) and N2P1 amplitude (95% CI 0.55–0.80). CONCLUSIONS: The second order responses N2P1 and N2 amplitude on mfERG predict function that correlated with structural GCIPL thickness in moderate glaucoma. Early glaucoma may be best predicted by RNFL thickness rather than on mfERG responses